Willcox joins Center for Biological Diversity
by CBD press release
May 10, 2013
The Center for Biological Diversity announced today the opening of a northern Rockies office to be headed by renowned conservationist Louisa Willcox, who has been working for bears and other wildlife in the region for 30 years. With the addition of Willcox, the Center will expand its advocacy for endangered species and habitats in the region, including work to protect grizzlies, wolves, lynx, bison, grayling, sage grouse and fishers.
"The Center’s increased commitment to the region is great news for our unique plants and animals, which are under continuous threat from sprawl, energy development, climate change and a host of other forces," said Willcox. "With vast expanses of mountains and prairie and pristine waters, the northern Rockies are a last bastion of wilderness for species like grizzly bears and wolves and fish that have been wiped out across the rest of the lower 48 states."
The Center has gained protection for a variety of species and habitats in the northern Rockies. American wolverines were recently proposed for protection through an ambitious settlement agreement between the Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that requires the agency to make protection decisions for 757 species; under that agreement the Fish and Wildlife Service will make a decision about protection for Montana grayling in the Big Hole River next year. The Center was also part of litigation to obtain or retain Endangered Species Act protections for wolves, grizzlies and lynx.
In the coming years, the Center will continue to increase the scope of its program to protect rare and endangered species in the region.
"The northern Rockies are a refuge for an incredible range of plants and animals," Willcox said. "And losing any of these species not only impoverishes the wild places they live but hurts the rest of us who call the northern Rockies home."
Editor's note: Willcox, formerly worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and prior to that, Sierra Club and Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
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